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Monday, February 28, 2011

We've recently discovered Rachel's blog Stitched in Color, and it's truly a great quilting blog. We had to pick from several great quilts to feature...and we may just ask to feature her again! :) She's got a great stock of tutorials, and if you're a beginner quilter she has a whole area for you, from how to get started, buy fabric, and use your rotary cutter you can see that all here. Here's a great charity quilt for you to admire:

What's my favorite quilt of the moment? I guess it's this one, and the ones to come from do. Good Stitches, a virtual quilting bee for charity. This quilt is an expression of love, of friendship and of generosity. And, it's not really "mine" at all.I made my first quilt,the Colorbrick, at the beginning of this year. Course, once a blogger catches the quilting bug the quilting bees start calling. "Come play with us!" "Look, you can use my fabric!" "We'll help you make a quilt!" The lure is strong, but something stopped me.Fact is, I don't need many quilts for our house. I have a bonafide quilt-hating-husband (who's otherwise a gem), so my only excuses for making quilts is this bed, that bed and the other. After that, I think my license to quilt (for us) will expire. I've gotta savor the process every time, you know?Nope, I don't want a quilt for "me" from a quilting bee, but I do want to play. And, then there's this other thing, I'd like to do some good. Help others. Make quilts for people who actually need them. Children that don't have quilting mamas, or aunts, or grandmothers. Yes, a quilting bee for charity would be perfect!But, I couldn't find one. So, I made one. It's calleddo. Good Stitches. 10 talented ladies joined me in our first sewing circle called "Love" which makes quilts to be distributed to needy children through Wrap Them in Love. This Red & Aqua Sampler Quilt is our first completed quilt. It was my pleasure to plan, piece and finish it. In the process I learned that differing shades of aqua only enhanced the quilt, that finding bee blocks in the mail for weeks is completely enchanting, and that there are a LOT of people who want to get involved doing some good!If you'd like to get involved, please drop by our group page on Flickrto get the gooey details and fill out our new members form. You can also see bits of the 7 other quilts that are currently in process!Blessings,Rachel

Friday, February 25, 2011

Angie from Crafted Angles emailed us this quilt a few weeks back. I was really touched by the story that goes with it. Quilting is really a healing process for a lot of us. I know that for myself, crafting, sewing, quilting, I have begun to believe it is an addition for me. I can go to it when I am stressed, or need comfort. I guess there could be worse addictions right? Be sure to visit Angie's cute blog.

This quilt is called “Dragonflies”. It is named after the symbolism that Walter Dudley Cavert illustrated in poem about loved ones that have died and “the fact that we cannot see our friends or communicate with them after the transformation which we call death is no proof that they cease to exist.”

This quilt was given to a family that found comfort with symbolism of the dragonfly after their son/brother passed away. When my brother passed away a year and a half ago, this family provided me a lot of support.

Since I find healing by quilting, I started this quilt last March when I found the perfect dragonfly fabric. After nine months, I finally finished the quilt. It is complete with a pieced backing, a sewn-in label that I designed, double borders, and vibrant colors throughout a diamond pattern.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Hi all, remember this nine patch tutorial I made a couple months ago? I finally finished my quilt top. It is made with Anna Maria Horner Little Folks Voile. The fabric is super soft, but still 100% cotton. I am going to get some of her flannel from the same line for the backing. I LOVE these colors a lot!

So pretty!

Love this photos blowing in the breeze. There is one fabric which does not belong? Is it super obvious?

I kind of regret putting that in, but I needed 9 different prints, and I wasn't going to wait, and I hadn't planned properly :(

In the end I am not sad at all, only happy. I am keeping this one for me! (whenever I get it finished)

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Look at this amazing quilt Kristen from The Crafty Quilter's Closet sent to us? It was made by her great Grandmother. How lucky she was to end up with it. I am always amazed with the beautiful time consuming quilts our Grandmother's made. Such detail and patience, I don't think I could have been a quilter back then! Thanks Kristen. Check out Kristen's cute blog, and she has a fun tutorial link here.

When someone finds out I quilt, I am always amazed at the shocked look that cross their face. It is as if a quilter can be nothing more than a wrinkled old grandmother who sits wrapped in her shawl quilting...when she is not napping in front of re-runds of Matlock. Their responses, while slightly delayed, are predictable, and I have heard them many, many times. I get the, "Oh, I wish I could do that!" or "I've always wanted to learn." My favorite has to be the "How nice for you", which implies it's not nice for them. What I love to hear is "My Grandmother used to quilt" which is quickly followed by "BUT she did it all by hand." As if somehow I am cheating by using a machine. I have done my share of hand quilting, a very small share. I'll admit hand quilting is an art form, not one for the faint of heart or those afraid of a little blood.

Truthfully, many quilters are fortunate and do learn to quilt at their mother or Grandmother's knee. I was not one of these fortunate quilters. As far as I knew, no one genetically linked to me quilted at all. And then I received this.

This quilt was Quilted by my Great-Grandmother. Inez Irick Huber. Sadly there is no label stating when or where. (Label Your Quilts Ladies!)

I find this quilt an amazing work of art and patience. Inez was the mother of 5 boys. As the mother of 3 children, only 2 of whom are boys, I can see why she might have needed an outlet. I never had the opportunity to meet her since she passed away before I was born. When people speak of Inez it is always with strong words. She was a small person with a defiant personality who was the driving force of her family. (Perhaps we have more in common than just our quilting.)

Inez age 16

As I admired this hand quilted beauty with it's perfectly spaced quilting, something I assure you I never will aspire to, I realized not only was it hand quilted by it was also hand pieced! I can only imagine the number of hours put into this quilt. These were hours away from husband and boys, peaceful hours perhaps with friends or family, hours doing something you enjoyed with people you love. These too are things Inez and I have in common.

Although, I have not been able to put a name to this pattern, it contains elements of Irish Crosses, Ocean Waves and Tree of Life. In case you wondered, I know I did, this quilt contains 7,128 triangles or 3,564 hand pieced 1/2 square triangles, just over 3,560 more than I care to ever hand piece. I have no idea when it was constructed and can only assume that since Inez was born in 1884 is was sometime after that. (and of course before she died.)

This quilt is in remarkably good condition and has only two small tears. Before being passed down to me it hung in my Aunts farm house for years. Now that it is down it seems to be saying, "Just let me rest awhile." And I plan to let it do just that, AFTER a nice relaxing bath, for the quilt not for me.

Despite the fact that I am saddened by the lack of information about this quilt, I am quite happy it has found its way into my home. I feel grateful that through this beautiful family heirloom I have found a connection to quilting and family I never new existed. Perhaps with luck, I will be able to pass this quilt down to my daughter someday and continue the legacy of quilting that Inez started.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Although Megan and I have been crafting for the entire last week and a half. Seriously pulling some late nights, feeding our children some horrible food that would resemble what those families are eating in all those popular documentaries of Americans poor diet (processed, microwave, all sorts of preservatives). It is quilt possible Child Protective services should have been called on us for all the child neglect going on. Seriously! But boy have we been having fun.

We also went to SLC for a night and stayed at a hotel. Shopping, food, and so much laughter, there was a specific moment I seriously thought we may be arrested for public intoxication, then after they checked our mormony alcohol free blood, they would just think we are freaks! It was so much fun. There will be tears when Megan leaves again :(

Anyhow, we haven't taken photos of anything...so I picked my favorites from last week....

my full color life seriously, my personal favorite of last week. I want to bump this little project up my craft to do list to the top!

The Rebel homemaker super cute Darth Vader pillow for her husband! I would love to make this for my husband just to see his face....

Link up a recent craft project that uses fabric...if you're new don't be shy! This is for everyone. Click the button to add your link at the bottom and link up a recent blog post where you used fabric to create or enhance something.Below are a few "rules" to play.

Mention us in your post with either a link or make it easy and add the button to your blog sidebar and you won't have to remember each week. ***You can take either our blog or our Fabric Tuesday buttons on the sidebar.***PLEASE READ ME:Most everyone does this, but please actually mention that you are linking up to Quilt Story in your post...even if you have the button on the sidebar there needs to be mention in the post :) We've just seen a couple where we can't see any button or link to us and then we scroll way way down and there's the button...we want to make sure everyone knows so everyone can play! Thank you!!

You don't have to do this to link up, promise. However if you want to follow us, we follow back :) But please comment telling us you did so and we will hop right on over and make sure we're following too!

And how about we each take time to comment on the link just before yours, that's easy enough right? We'd love for this to be a linky party where everyone gets comments, so if you take the time to look, take a second to leave a comment!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

This quilt comes to us from Mary Clair of the fabulous splendorfalls one of our block party winners. I really like how these circles really pop out against the black. Check our her website. Super cute projects like this pillow. And her sewing and quilt link is a fun look through... Just a bright cheery quilt for a Monday morning.

It's finally done. Phew.
This was one of those quilts that evolved into it's final form as opposed to executing a vision. First it was going to be raw edge solid Castle Peeps circles. Then it was appliqued solid Peeps circles. Then it was back to raw edges again but I had already cut the solid circles, which now were too big since I wasn't going to applique them. That's when I decided to quarter them and sew them back together.
I'm sure I'm not the only one this happens to?

I bit the bullet and free motion quilted this one; all I can say is thank goodness it's hard to see black on black! It was my first real free motion adventure outside some practice swatches. I joked with my St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild friends that they weren't allowed to look at it up close.{wink}
It's more practical that perfect and I think that's okay.

I do think the overall quilt turned out pretty cute though!

Can anyone tell me why black fabric is such a fuzz magnet? Seriously! Didn't help with the raw edges either; I think I used an entire lint roller on this thing.

I used a cheerful green Kona for the binding and pieced in my practice appliqued circles for the back!

My sister in law is the recipient of this quilt and I'm happy for her to have it.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Do you know Emily from Mommy's Nap Time? She's been a great reader for quite some time, we always have so much fun checking out her projects. She participates in a lot of great swaps, like a Doll Quilt Swap (eeek for cuteness!) and making adorable things for her adorable girls. Today she's got a very personal story to share with us showing us once again how quilts can bring much more than warmth.

These two quilts were made with love, with the help of 33 people across 7 countries. Here's how they came to be. My niece Rosemarie is four years old and has spent three of those years fighting a battle against cancer. She's a sweet tough little girl, and her treatments take her and her parents several hours away from home 4 days a week. I have wanted to make Rosemarie a quilt since I started quilting about two years ago, but I knew it'd be a big process, not only emotionally, but also because I knew I couldn't make just one quilt; I'd need to make one for her big sister Katee too!

Feeling like this was too big of a project to take on myself, I started a flickr group and enlisted the help of my new online sewing friends. They sure stepped up! In a matter of weeks I had enough blocks sent to me to make two beautiful quilts (some generous friends even sent extra fabric along to help with the backing and binding!). I'd never known what connections could be made online. I've never met a single one of these ladies in person, but they poured out their love and prayers into each block. My sister's best friend even made one!

These quilts came together with so much prayer stitched in. They were only my second and third tries at free motion quilting and it was such a peaceful prayerful process. By Thanksgiving, they were both assembled needing only the binding to be sewn down, we brought them along on the road trip home so that my neice Katee (the 10 year old) could help me sew the binding of her sister's quilt. The last step, before finishing the bindings, I used a fabric pen to write prayers for the girls in the seam allowances of the bindings. Even if they don't know exactly what's written there, they will always be able to know that they are not only figuratively, but also literally wrapped in prayer.

I know that these quilts can't really bring healing to Rosemarie. I know that they can't cure the loneliness that Katee feels when her family is away from her for her sister's treatments. But what these quilts can do is bring the world together in prayer, and in love. I hope that the girls continue to remember that. Thirty-three ladies put a bit of their hearts into this project. I pray that the girls will always be able to feel that love.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

During the Block Party Heather and I came across these great blocks, so of course we followed link to link to link and soon we were admiring all of Melanie's things from The Crafty Cupboard. We were looking at all her tutorials she offers, as well as following her "quilts" tags. It's so fun discovering other crafters. And here is Melanie's fabulous double hourglass quilt that she made for someone in need of comfort.

I brought this quilt to our Young Woman weekly activity last night to finish up the binding while the girls practiced their volleyball skills. The occasional "Yeah!!! Great effort!!" was all that was required of me, so I was able to finish a side and a half :). I know, I'm terrible.

This quilt is uber cute. Primary colors make me smile, and want to go play at a part and have a picnic. How about you? Especially when you toss in a good stripe for the binding.

This quilt is particularly important because it is for my sister's mother-in-law, Karen, and a longtime friend of our family. She is going through Chemotherapy for a second time after her Lymphoma returned. I guess it missed the memo that it wasn't welcome back.

The double hourglass signifies time. Doubled. The fabric is 1930's reproduction prints, reminiscent of time past. Cancer is a mean, yucky, frightening thing, but the one thing we can be assured of is the time we have spent with those who mean most to us. Like many, Karen's life hasn't necessarily been filled with gilded pathways and gleaming adventures, but she has been a shining example of love for the Lord, and love of family. We are looking forward to many more years with her as our friend!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Heather and I are back together again! Not only are we in the same city crafting, we're in the same house. My two boy's and I have been making ourselves at home for over a week, and it's awesome! And to celebrate, let's have

Fabric Tuesday

edition 23

Our dear sweet mother came over Monday afternoon and we both whined for a nap. (We have been staying up til past 1 am crafting almost every night). So she said "Sure." I told her I wouldn't mind if she assembled dinner for us either. When Heather and I were rudely woken from our deep slumber 2 hrs later, our mom had made dinner, cleaned the kitchen, babysat our children, ironed Heather's pile of snowball blocks, cut my binding, and organized Heather's much needed tupperware cupboard. Makes me want to nap again just listing all she did. Heather and I can't accomplish all that in one whole day together! We don't know how we were born from her uterus and not nearly as productive or organized as her!

Heather has a GORGeous quilt to show off today, isn't this a great quilt pattern?

This is the fabric I got from Fresh Squeezed fabrics. It is not my normal color choices at all, but I LOVE it. It is my favorite style of fabrics, vintage and floral. My heart always goes back to those. A couple months ago I posted this tutorial how to make the dutch pinwheel's. I finally got it all together, ready to quilt. I think I am going to attempt to quilt it myself, this would be the largest quilt thus far (scary) but I want to try.

Also, Fresh Squeezed Fabrics is going to do a GIVEAWAY of these great fabrics right here on Quilt Story so you could make one of your own!! Stay tuned.

Here is a photo from the tutorial on how to piece the Dutch pinwheel block. Cute?

Sorry Mother dear for showing my quilt in front of my dead annual flower pots. Yes, I know you told me to move those to the garage. No I obviously didn't, and what is the point now? In no time you will be back over here replanting them for the spring!

FABRIC TUESDAY!

Edition 23

Link up a recent craft project that uses fabric...if you're new don't be shy! This is for everyone. Click the button to add your link at the bottom and link up a recent blog post where you used fabric to create or enhance something.Below are a few "rules" to play.

Mention us in your post with either a link or make it easy and add the button to your blog sidebar and you won't have to remember each week. ***You can take either our blog or our Fabric Tuesday buttons on the sidebar.***PLEASE READ ME:Most everyone does this, but please actually mention that you are linking up to Quilt Story in your post...even if you have the button on the sidebar there needs to be mention in the post :) We've just seen a couple where we can't see any button or link to us and then we scroll way way down and there's the button...we want to make sure everyone knows so everyone can play! Thank you!!

You don't have to do this to link up, promise. However if you want to follow us, we follow back :) But please comment telling us you did so and we will hop right on over and make sure we're following too!

And how about we each take time to comment on the link just before yours, that's easy enough right? We'd love for this to be a linky party where everyone gets comments, so if you take the time to look, take a second to leave a comment!

***We've been having problems with McLinky since it was changed to a paid subscription...he tried to do some system upgrade and it's been a little crazy. SO if you are not seeing the linky try back a little later. Cross your fingers!!

Monday, February 14, 2011

We are doing our best to contact everyone who is a winner from the Block Party Contest, but you may be surprised to find yourself listed here! We had an amazing turn out and even more amazing blocks!! We hope everyone has had fun making theirs and looking at all the submissions. Really it was sooo hard to choose winners, but we had some help! Thank you to our great judges for helping us narrow it down!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Cute Tyra from Silverlily likes to sew made this super darling color wheel quilt for her playroom wall. I LOVE it. I think it is sweet to make for a playroom. It is so eye catching. Tyra has a great blog with lots of cute quilt projects. Plus she has a darling etsy shop too... thanks Tyra...

I just finished this color wheel quilt. The pattern is from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. When I first perused the book after I'd gotten it about two years ago from the library, I saw this pattern and thought, that is so pretty but there is no way I could make that. I was totally intimidated by the curved pattern. But for some reason we were rearranging our playroom/office/my studio room and I looked at one of the blank walls and thought, this wall needs the Color Wheel quilt. I pulled out the book and read through the pattern again. I thought, well maybe it is doable and since I was starting up with the StashPact2011 group on Flickr I thought this would be the perfect first project to start going through my stash. So I got started on it and once I did, I just fell in love with it. It came together so beautifully and now that its done I LOVE how its warmed up the room with all its bright colors.

I finished the Color Wheel quilt and hung it yesterday. YAY! I took it to the park in hopes to work on it while Asher slept in the stroller and Carver played in the sand (its basically spring time here in California). Doesn't that sound nice? Unfortunately Asher had other ideas and decided that he needed to be held. What's a mama to do? Luckily both boys napped very well that afternoon and I was able to finish up the binding and hang it up.

I love, love, LOVE how it warms up the playroom. (Don't tell but I hung it up with push pins...I know... bad bad bad...But it worked!) I just want to sit and stare at it all day.

It was a fantastic way to utilize the stash and really added some great and needed color to our playroom walls.